Octogenarian Dr.J.Sanathkumar is the first son of Dr.N.Jagannathan. The father had founded a TB Sanitorium those days and His Highness Jayachamaraja Wodeyar had been an esteemed visitor to the premises. The senior doctor leads a retired life and he spends his time amidst the company of books and his tab. He was keen to share the stories connected with his boyhood. " I began playing cricket at the age of 12 and got hooked on to the game because of Ramachandran, my uncle from Chennai. Those were times when radios and sports were our past time. I remember listening to test cricket commentaries by the Maharajkumar of Viziznagaram. It was a time when tennis was a club game, football was the ruling game and cricket was new to our city. People used to play with the worn out tennis ball. The CSI All Souls Church compound was the place to play cricket. We used to remove the thorns , take a roller and straighten out the place, create a pitch, water the spot and then use the ground. The game was played with a three fourth mat or a half mat. All of us would get together , pool our resources and get the used carpet from India Coffee House, get it stitched and cleaned before getting it smoothened. It used to be brought by cycle. Finally eyelets would be the spots that were used for riveting the carpet to the ground. We used a hammer and this would last about a year",smiled Dr.Sanathkumar.
Octogenarian Dr.J.Sanathkumar is the first son of Dr.N.Jagannathan. The father had founded a TB Sanitorium those days and His Highness Jayachamaraja Wodeyar had been an esteemed visitor to the premises. The senior doctor leads a retired life and he spends his time amidst the company of books and his tab. He was keen to share the stories connected with his boyhood.
"I began playing cricket at the age of 12 and got hooked on to the game because of Ramachandran, my uncle from Chennai. Those were times when radios and sports were our past time. I remember listening to test cricket commentaries by the Maharajkumar of Viziznagaram. It was a time when tennis was a club game, football was the ruling game and cricket was new to our city. People used to play with the worn out tennis ball. The CSI All Souls Church compound was the place to play cricket. We used to remove the thorns, take a roller and straighten out the place, create a pitch, water the spot and then use the ground. The game was played with a three fourth mat or a half mat.
All of us would get together, pool our resources and get the used carpet from India Coffee House, get it stitched and cleaned before getting it smoothened. It used to be brought by cycle. Finally eyelets would be the spots that were used for riveting the carpet to the ground. We used a hammer and this would last about a year",smiled Dr.Sanathkumar.
The bat was seasoned with linseed oil. The boys used to buy a 5 and 3/4 inches ounce ball for the matches. After the match, they would practice for 3 or 4 days. The seams would get worn out but money was scarce and therefore they would get a cobbler to re stich the ball in order to make it playable. Net practice was not known and none of them wore a helmet or protective pads. Left glove was used but they did not have an abdominal guard.
They just had the left pad and used white canvas shoes in the place of cricketing shoes. It was week end cricket and the boys were not too much into studies. Race Course had huge swathes of vacant land and it was therefore convenient to play cricket over there. They used to also play in the burial ground ( Sastri Maidanam ) in R.S.Puram and a tree used to double up as their pavilion. Money came from the parents and a Christian ( European) Father Efcaldocatt used to give a princely sum of Rs.25 to the boys.
"There were a couple of teams - Government College Team, ACC Madukkarai Team, Jolly Brothers Team, Airforce Team, Stanes High School Team, Recreation Club Team and Fountain Head Team. Matches were played at Madukkarai, Government Arts College, Stanes High School and Sastri Maidanam ( Burial Ground.Well , I remember all of us praying for rains so that it would help our country to draw the match. Modern English Bakery radio was the spot for these prayer thoughts.This was done while listening to the commentaries. We did not know the names of the techniques used by the test cricketers. I can remember S.S.Balasubramaniam, S.S.Ramamurthy ( sons of Dr.S.R.Srikantan ), T.V.Angappan, Palaniappan, K.V.Balasubramaniam ( Balasubramanya Mills ) R.Shantharam ( Rajalakshmi Mills ) and a few others from the Jolly Brothers team. K.V.Balasubramaniam was a good all rounder and Vaidyanathan , the son of K.G.Subramanyam was a wonderful sportsperson. We used to play hockey near our house at Palaniswamy Naidu Street and it was Sargunam , the son of Uthamaramaswamy Naidu who taught me cycling. " stated Sanathkumar. N.Sundararajan of Vincent Colony was the classmate of J.Balagopal ( second son of Dr.N.Jagannathan ) and remembers a couple of these instances. Advocate Panchapakesan, the son of C.Meenakshisundaram Sastriar was also part of this circle. There were also the Gopalapuram Team , Jai Hind Team and Bharat Team. Sundararajan remembers them playing in Race Course. Cricket had picked up quite fast.
Dr.J.Sanathkumar spoke about cycling in Coimbatore during his golden days. Cycles has come into Coimbatore in 1895. Frazer , the secretary of Sir Robert Stanes had been responsible for this introduction. The PSG Brothers, V.Gopal Naidu & V.Rangaswamy Naidu ( Radhakrishna Mills ) used to cycle their way to work till Erode. It helped them to indulge in cotton trade. Cycles were hassle free when compared to bullock carts. This was at a time when cars and buses were yet to come in. Cycles helped in terms of individual mobility.
The octogenarian recalled the story of one Mookambigairathinam who was well known to the family, " Cycles without lights could not ply after 6 PM. They would be fined by the authorities. It was a big issue. This Mookambigairathinam was father's patient. He was caught by a policeman on Mill Road when he was about 14 years old. He did not have a light on his bicycle and therefore it was seized. He had to prove that the cycle was his and take it the next day.
The youngster's father had a picture framing store near the Koniamman Temple. He asked the son to pull out all the framed pictures of God and showed him the ' framed invoice ' ( 1928 ) of the cycle. The boy showed it to the cop and paid the fine. This demonstrates the importance of the cycle for it was a wonder. It was a time when people used to come to the framing stores on 31 st December with the calendar which was made with a picture of one of the Hindu deities , get it framed urgently and place it in their premises on the 1 st of January. This was done with most of the God calendars. Some offices had just too many ‘ God pictures ‘ due to this positive sentiment “.
Sanathkumar spoke about the different types of cycle lights. One had been the Miller Brand and the other Lucas. There had been a British made kerosene light too. People had a match box in order to get their cycle light lit. A red reflector had to be on the rear. " Sargunam's tuition master had a cycle with which one could direct the person to overtake on the right and not in the left. Brookes saddle was popular and cycles came in an SKD ( semi knocked down ) form. An aeroplane saddle was considered to be luxuriant. The box on the cycle was used by the doctors who visited their patients on the cycle. The breadman from JM English Bakery used to bring us bread, butter , buns and cakes on a cycle. It was a luxury then. Cycles had licenses then and one had to pay a small fee to get it done. The Variety Hall Road was the place to get cycles and we would get the extra fittings while buying the cycle. Ayudha Pooja was the time went our cycles were given a bath before applying vibhuti, manjal ( turmeric ) and kumkumam. An arati would be given to the cycle." spoke Dr.J.Sanathkumar.
“ We used to go to the Municipality to get the cycle licence. It used to cost about Rs1 twice a year. The cycles for hire will have black background licence plates with white letters and private cycles would have white background plates with black letters. The cycle details were registered in the Municipality and we could be caught by the Municipal authorities if the licence label was missing on the cycle, “ mentioned Sundararajan who was known as Sunda amongst his circles.
Dr.J.Sanatkumar spoke at length while connecting experiences with maturity. " I still recall the bullock cart races that we had during our childhood days. Our bullock cart and Sargunams' used to have a race on the way back from school. We savoured every moment of our childhood. Seniors like us are given an oppourtunity to ruminate during our period of retirement. Our old experiences get distilled into wisdom as we ruminate over time. Well those were the times." shared the senior doctor while talking about good old times.
Those were the days when life was simpler for people did not shift goal posts. A cycle and a simple game with used balls were the elixir of life for those people who believed in simple living and high thinking.